It’s possibly a fair assumption to say that many of us get a little tired of all those academic readings from time to time. Our information-hungry generation appreciates the ability of catching up with interesting news articles in the most relaxed way: digital, uniform, visual, and somewhat interactive. For last term’s module Critical Orientations, I was positively surprised to discover that one of the readings had been published in an actual magazine, namely Wired.
Clicking on its homepage, I took a liking to its variety and complexity of topics, yet casual writing style, getting me on board with the idea that this publication could be a good source for future essays, particularly when concrete examples must be provided or the most recent real-life issues mentioned. It has been published monthly since 1993 and belongs under the Conde Nast umbrella, yet its website wins with an easy-navigable layout.
Based in San Francisco and New York, the magazine covers science, technology and culture topics worldwide – and how they correlate and affect society. Its official article categories are: Business, Culture, Design, Gear, Science, Security and Transportation – all of which tie perfectly into the contents of this module, seeing as technological breakthroughs, internet privacy and hacking, global mobility and updates on the business of our favourite social media sites are frequent issues in Wired.
With the media overlapping all of said categories, it is often the centre of debate – modern ethical concerns are discussed by columnists such as “How long should you wait before shutting down someone’s Facebook account after they die?”, and global social issues are raised in articles like “Donate your old USB drives to fight North Korean brainwashing”.
Furthermore, I have also found plenty of articles relating to my particular course, PR/Advertising, with topics such as ad blocking and the newest PR campaigns constantly being on Wired’s front page. A personal favourite: “Trump’s New Hampshire Rally is just like reading the comments”.
According to the magazine’s Twitter bio , “WIRED is where tomorrow is realized”, so do give it a follow! It’s definitely worth a browse.
Network Society and the Media 
I’m glad somebody used the example of Wired as an online resource. It’s not just relevant to Media studies but it’s also just an interesting magazine to read. Not the easiest magazine to find in print in London but at least the website is updated regularly.
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Although Wired Magazine is difficult to locate in print form around London, the topics and chapters you mentioned above look interesting even before reading the article. Knowing that you can use technology to help the future of people is always helpful and useful when writing essays that require examples of how technology has helped the world to advance. I think I will give it a try.
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I strongly agree with you, Wired is an excellent magazine which takes on difficult, sometimes controversial topics with a really laid-back writing style. I love the minimalistic site design as well.
I believe that what is particularly great about Wired, is the choice of topics. They all correlate with the modules we are taking, and can be of great help while writing essays and other academic assignments as a reliable source of information.
But let us not stop there! I actually gave it a browse right now. It is very exciting. Maybe the reason for my excitement for reading articles about technology is the sheer influence of my current studies. But I found a great one (you can find it here: http://www.wired.com/2016/02/take-a-trip-to-a-time-when-viruses-still-called-you-names/). This is directly connected to the history of the internet, and tells us a story about the so-called ‘Casino virus’, and the Malware Museum. I think it’s wonderful, I recommend checking it out!
Great post!
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Thank you for your input, glad you liked it! I just read this, and as much as I had a laugh, I wish I’d been able to read this last week for it to feature in my History of the Internet blog post! It’s amazing how fast things change online, and how we weren’t even around to witness viruses like these.
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